This invention relates generally to the coating of ophthalmic lenses and more particularly concerns the automation of the lens coating process.
Present ophthalmic lens coating procedures include manual insertion of the lens into a washing chamber to be washed by hand or by use of a high pressure wash pump, drying the washed lens by manually holding the lens over a filtered compressed air jet, manually moving the dried lens to a coating apparatus in which the lens coating material is not recycled and then manually transferring the coated lens to a curing oven which is generally inaccurately controlled by use of a stop watch and potentiometer control.
These independent steps and the manner in which they are performed result in a slow, labor intensive process which wastes coating material and produces greater volume of hazardous waste material for disposal. The room in which these steps are performed must be environmentally controlled to minimize the risk of contamination during the process.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a process and machine for the automatic cleaning, coating and curing necessary to apply a scratch resistant coating to an ophthalmic lens. Another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses in a self-contained environment, eliminating the need for a "clean" room. A further object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses which minimizes the use of hazardous or flammable solvents. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses that minimizes coating waste by recirculating coating. Still another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses that reduces operator exposure to coating by encapsulating the coating. Another object of the invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses that reduces operator decisions by use of computer control to instruct lens processing parameters. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses which eliminates process steps by automatically replenishing the coating supply and prompting the operator when the available coating has been exhausted. Still another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses which minimizes manual handling of the lens. Another object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses that affords accurate control of the curing phase of the process. A further object of this invention is to provide a process and machine for coating ophthalmic lenses that facilitates operator adjustment of curing times in accordance with the strength of the curing device.